Charlie, doing what a dog does

This is Charlie the basset hound who tagged along with his owner James Jantti, of North Kansas City, Mo. to come to the rally.

Back to Devil's Tower

I'll almost certainly pay a visit to Devil's Tower while at the BMW MOA International Rally at Gillette, Wyo. in July.
I shot this the last time I was there - in July, 1995, when I was riding Western highways to Portland and to the BMW MOA International Rally in Durango, Colo.
My first visit was in 1990 during the 'MOA rally at Rapid City, S.D.

Planning

If the weather forecast were more favorable, I would be somewhere in central Tennessee right now, heading for the Georgia Mountain Rally near Hiawassee, Ga.
But the storm warnings are out and I'd the focused on keeping ahead of the rain, only to greet it when it arrives at the rally tonight or tomorrow. Rainsuit rallying is not my thing.

So I did the next best thing this morning.

I went online and registered for the 36th annual BMW Motorcycle Owners of America International Rally July 17-20 in Gillette, Wyo.

I was forced to miss last year's BMW MOA rally in Wisconsin because Maria and I were contracted to shoot a July 14 (my birthday, too) wedding. That's the one for which I finally completed the album this week.

Gillette is about a two-day ride from here with an overnight somewhere around Omaha or Sioux City, S.D.

Now the challenge is to block out time on either side of the rally for some fun riding in the West. Other than a week in the Colorado Rocky Mountains with my Indianapolis BMW Club friends last August, I did very little riding last year.
I haven't seen the Pacific Ocean from a motorcycle seat since July, 2004, and I'm really itching to get back to Big Sur. Plus I'm overdue for visits to my sons in Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas. Clearly, I have some serious motorcycle riding to do this year.

And I aim to do it.